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SGI gives Linux a helping hand 
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 19, 1999, 7:10 p.m. PT 
SGI is set to release another component of its operating system 
software to open source developers, a step that should make it easier 
to restore Linux-based computers after a disaster. 
Tomorrow at Linux Expo in North Carolina, SGI will announce that it 
will freely license its XFS "journaling" file system technology, a 
core component of its Irix operating system, as open source software. 
Effectively, this means developers will be able to incorporate XFS 
into their own variants of Linux. 
For SGI, the move is intended to promote affinities between the Linux 
community and its own products. "People will be able to take advantage 
of the unique capabilities on SGI hardware," said Dave McAllister, 
SGI's strategic technologist. 
Going further, Tony Iams, an analyst at D.H. Brown, said releasing XFS 
as open source will allow SGI to become the hardware of choice for 
Linux-Intel systems. "It opens up opportunities for them, given their 
strategic dependence" on Linux, he said. 
Linux currently lacks a journaling file system, a feature that makes 
it easier to get a Unix computer up and running after a system 
crashes. Although several people are at work on such a component, 
including programmer Stephen Tweedie at Linux seller Red Hat, its 
absence remains a weakness when it comes to using Linux at the high 
end, according to the D.H. Brown firm. 
Numerous hardware and software companies are taking steps to support 
Linux, a Unix-like operating system that can be obtained for free, but 
SGI's effort goes farther than most, Iams said. "On balance, it's a 
rational decision for them," he said. 
Without a journaling file system, rebooting a computer after a crash 
can be extremely time-consuming, a critical issue as companies look 
for computer systems that are available to users around the clock. 
That's particularly true of companies who base their business 
operations on computer systems, what the industry calls mission 
critical computing. 
While SGI's announcement will come tomorrow, the software itself won't 
be available for download until the summer. SGI still is deciding how 
to structure the open source license, the company said, though it is 
sure to meet the requirements of the Open Source Definition, a 
spokesman said. 
All major Unix flavors as well as Windows NT already have a journaling 
file system, Iams noted. The lack of one in Linux was one of its three 
chief weaknesses, he said, and SGI's release of XFS likely will speed 
its development. 
XFS has many advanced features, but SGI isn't releasing all of them as 
open source, Iams added. The open source version--which anyone will be 
able to see, modify, and distribute--is limited to 64-bit file support 
and the journaling system. 
Although SGI plans to release the software, that doesn't guarantee XFS 
will be adopted into Linux, cautioned Giga Information Group analyst 
Stacey Quandt. "That's really up to Linus [Torvalds, Linux leader] and 
the others," she said. 
In addition, the open source community will pay careful attention to 
the exact terms under which SGI licenses XFS, she said. 
McAllister said SGI has talked to open source journaling file system 
developers, and "most of them have been pretty enthused." 
XFS is based on B-tree sorting method, a technique for finding files 
that's faster than the linear sorting method used in many file 
systems, McAllister said. 
With the 64-bit file system in XFS, computers can manage files as 
large as 9 million terabytes and file systems of 18 million terabytes, 
McAllister said. Linux can't currently deal with files that large, he 
said. "We expect the technology is a little in front of the demand," 
he said, but already there are scientific users who nave data sets 
that large. 
That need for large file system access will become stronger with the 
effort to get Linux able to take full advantage of 64-bit chips such 
as Sun's UltraSparc, Compaq's Alpha, Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC, or 
Intel's upcoming Merced.

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